National Rail 21923 225486308 2008-07-13T23:10:35Z 78.32.104.206 {{for|the Australian railway operator of the same name|National Rail Corporation}} [[Image:NationalRail.svg|thumb|right|250px|National Rail uses the BR double-arrow logo]] <!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Hackney-central.jpg|right|thumb|250px|A typical National Rail station sign showing the double-arrow logo]] --> '''National Rail''' is a brand name of the [[Association of Train Operating Companies]] (ATOC). ATOC is an [[unincorporated association]] whose membership consists of the passenger [[Train Operating Company|train companies]] of [[Great Britain]] <ref>National Rail - Design Guidelines - January 2006,</ref> which now run the passenger services previously provided by British Railways (BR) (latterly trading as [[British Rail]]), a [[statutory corporation]] which has since been abolished. It thus generally does not include services that do not have a BR background; this distinction is important, because National Rail services share a ticketing structure and ticket inter-availability that do not necessarily extend to other services. == National Rail and Network Rail == [[Image:British rail ticket Wellington Shrewsbury.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Rail Ticket from [[Wellington, Shropshire|Wellington]] to [[Shrewsbury]]]] ''National Rail'' should not be confused with ''[[Network Rail]]''. National Rail is a brand used to promote passenger railway services, while Network Rail is the organisation owning and managing the fixed assets (tracks, signals etc.) of the railway network. The two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic and some lines are freight only. Some scheduled passenger services running on Network Rail lines, for example [[Heathrow Express]], the [[Tyne and Wear Metro]] and small parts of the [[London Underground]], are not part of the National Rail network. Conversely, some National Rail services run on track not part of the Network Rail network, for example on London Underground track. ==Train operating companies== {{main|List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom}} 24 privately owned '''Train Operating Companies''' (TOCs) operate trains on the UK rail network. The [[Association of Train Operating Companies]] (ATOC) provides a common voice for the TOCs and some degree of central coordination: the provision, for example, of a national timetable, journey planner, and enquiry service. ==Design and marketing== Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain (GB). The look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual companies operating trains and stations. However, National Rail continues to make use of British Rail's famous double-arrow logo designed by Gerald Burney of Design Research Unit (DRU); it has been incorporated to some degree into the National Rail brand, being displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and some postering. The intellectual rights to the logo remain public property, being vested in the [[Secretary of State]] responsible for railway transport. Use of the logo has more to do with convenience than design; changing it would have made obsolete all the road signs using it to indicate railway services since 1969. Individual operators would also have had no more right than any other private company for their "advertisement" to appear on traffic signs whereas the double arrow (and/or the LU symbol or a [[Passenger Transport Executive|PTE]] symbol if appropriate) was already a prescribed symbol for indicating a "railway station" <ref>Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002, Schedule 7</ref>. Newer stations do not always display the logo, but in general the BR logo is still very much associated with rail travel in GB, and used in multiple contexts to denote it. The typeface used in National Rail marketing is referred to in the National Rail Corporate Identity Style Guidelines as 'Logotype'. It is a specially designed font, which resembles bolded Comic Sans. Although the companies which comprise ATOC technically compete against each other, the strapline which National Rail uses to accompany their logo is 'Britain's train companies working together'. ==Other GB passenger rail operators== Several GB conurbations have their own [[metro]] or [[tram]] systems, most of which are not part of the National Rail network. These include the [[London Underground]], [[Docklands Light Railway]], [[Blackpool tramway|Blackpool Tramway]], [[Tramlink|Croydon Tramlink]], [[Glasgow Subway]], [[Tyne and Wear Metro]], [[Manchester Metrolink]], [[Sheffield Supertram]], [[Midland Metro]] and [[Nottingham Express Transit]]. On the other hand, the largely self-contained [[Merseyrail]] system is part of the National Rail network, and local rail schemes around [[Valley Lines|Cardiff]], [[Strathclyde Partnership for Transport|Glasgow]] and [[West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive|West Yorkshire]] consist entirely of National Rail services. [[London Overground]] is also part of the National Rail system. Two recently inaugurated passenger services, [[Heathrow Express]] and [[Eurostar]], are also not part of the National Rail network despite some sharing of stations and routes. In addition, [[Northern Ireland Railways]] was never part of British Rail, and thus is not part of the National Rail network. There are a significant number of privately owned or heritage railways, listed in the [[list of British heritage and private railways]], which are not part of the National Rail network and mostly do not operate public railway services. ==Ticketing== National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from [[British Rail]]. Through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office. Most tickets are inter-available between the services of all operators on routes appropriate to the journey being made. A notable exception is for journeys between London and Gatwick Airport, for which, as of March 2006, three operators issue different tickets valid on their own services only. There is also a London-Gatwick ticket that is valid on all operators except [[Gatwick Express]]. Operators on some other routes offer operator-specific tickets that are cheaper than the inter-available ones. Through tickets involving the services of [[Heathrow Express]] and [[London Underground]] are also available. [[Oyster card|Oyster]] pay as you go can only be used on a [[Oyster card (pay as you go) on National Rail|limited number of National Rail services]] in [[Greater London]], although [[Association of Train Operating Companies|ATOC]] has made a commitment to eventually accept the ticketing product on all routes within the London fare zones. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070810041058/http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3326.aspx | title=Train operators' Oyster acceptance welcomed | accessdate=2008-05-03 }}</ref> Passengers without a valid ticket boarding a train at a station where ticket-buying facilities are available are required to pay the full Open Single or Return fare. On some services [[penalty fare]]s apply - a ticketless passenger may be charged the greater of £20 or twice the full single fare to the next stop. Penalty Fares can be collected only by authorised Revenue Protection Inspectors, not by ordinary Guards. National Rail distributes a number of [[UK railway technical manuals|the technical manuals]] on which travel on the UK railways is based, such as the [[UK railway technical manuals|National Rail Conditions of Carriage]], via their website. ==Timetables== Pocket timetables for individual routes are available free at many railway stations. A National Rail Timetable, over 3000 pages long, was available for purchase but the final edition was published in May 2007. An alternative is the Bradshaw Mitchell’s Rail times which is published monthly and contains every train in the UK and also contains service changes that would not normally be published on the national rail timetable. It can be ordered by phone or online at www.railtimes.biz. An online version of the timetable and journey planner is accessible via National Rail's website which includes the facility to book tickets online. The website also provide realtime information about running of services in selected routes. ==See also== *[[Rail transport in the United Kingdom]] ==External links== *[http://www.nationalrail.co.uk National Rail website] ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Railway companies of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Post-privatisation British railway companies]] [[cs:National Rail]] [[de:National Rail]] [[fr:National Rail]] [[nl:National Rail]] [[ja:ナショナル・レール]] [[no:National Rail]]